27 February 2008

Flexing my bicraftual muscles

You may not see my bicraftualness on this blog since I mainly post about knitting, but I am first and foremost a quilter! We had a little incident around here with the quilt that is currently on our bed. It does need to be washed quite often since we usually wind up with at least one dog in the bed every night. Unfortunately, it did not survive the last washing. It was tied and not quilted and I never replaced any of the ties, even though I could see them disappearing slowly over the past 7 years. This last wash it came out with the batting all matted together. I could just cut it open and put new batting in, but it also has lots of holes on the top thanks to sharp puppy nails and it's far too small for our bed. So, I busted out a quilting UFO that I started working on about 2 years ago. It's already pieced and sandwiched together, it just needs quilting.

I have been quilting away and hopefully by the end of March we will have a new quilt. In the meantime we're using the quilt my mom made us for our wedding. I really wish we could just use that one all the time cause it's big and comfy, but it's too nice to expose to the dogs for too long.

In other news, I hate Ohio!! Well, not really, but I am getting sick and tired of waking up every morning to this:
I mean really, does the sun EVER shine here. And will the temperatures ever reach above 20 degrees again!! (If you look hard enough you'll see that there's a dog in this picture!) One of these days the sun will shine, the rain/snow/sleet will end and I'll be able to walk my dogs again!! I don't mind walking in the snow or light rain, but I do mind walking on the solid sheet of ice that is currently covering the path we walk on. I really don't want to fall, which is easy to do with 2-60 pound dogs pulling you in opposite directions! And I really can't fall cause I've got this little one inside of me:
Yep, it's my first ultrasound picture!! The little one was just squirming like crazy, I can't wait to be able to feel it. We're still waiting for any hint that my parents are actually going to come visit and bring out the baby furniture so we can start setting up the baby's room. Right now I have a pile of baby things, mainly just cute outfits and knitted things.

We also got a new couch. We all love it because we can all fit on it at once! It's far better than the little chaise it replaced.
Although Trapper does require a blanket on it for him to lay down, he's such a diva! Apparently the leather is too cold for him! It looks much better when it doesn't have piles of blankets on it. It's so comfy and so nice to lay on. It's super deep, it's like a twin bed!

Cooper still prefers his favorite spot that affords good views of the road and the neighbor's yard. He has to keep an eye out for the mailman and the neighbors dog at all times!! He does spend plenty of time on the new couch though when my sweetie is home, they're snuggle buddies!
Just one more thing to say today: maternity pants rock!! I think all pants should come with elastic waists and big spandex tummy panels! It may be too early for me to switch to maternity pants, but given that my regular pants were already too tight on me before the pregnancy, maternity pants are making an early showing. And I may never go back to real pants again!!

15 February 2008

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Girl Scout Cookie Time!! I got my favorite 2 types of cookies, Samoas and Tagalongs. Unfortunately the Tagalongs are doing nothing for me, but the Samoas are really hitting the spot!

Our bathroom remodel is almost done! But we're still having water pressure issues so we may need to put in a new pump or something to be able to actually enjoy the bathroom! Here's a little sneak peak. It should be done by this weekend so I'll put up a bunch of pictures then.
My sweetie and I did a little shopping the other day and he let me buy this:
Did I mention we love giraffes? I also really wanted an outfit with a gorilla that said hunk, but that is so not girl appropriate and I'm staying with gender neutral stuff for now.

I finished a second sweater for baby. It just needs a button and some blocking.
I'm also working on the baby quilt. It's very girly so it may be abandoned in a few months if we're having a boy, but I bought it years ago with the plan to make it for my baby so I really want to make it! Here's one block, it still needs the design stitched in the center.
I think that's it for now. I'm really looking forward to next week when there will be no workers in the house and I can actually do things again. I'm really hoping for a warm, dry day to take the dogs for a nice long walk. Oh, and the first ultrasound is on Tuesday!!!!!!

05 February 2008

So Much To Say!

There has been just so much going on here it's craziness! First off, as of yesterday, we have a fence!! The boys should be very happy with that, but they're not allowed to enjoy it yet. I took them out around 4 yesterday right after the guys left and they ran and ran and ran! Just the point of a fence, right? A safe place for the boys to exercise. Except for one little thing. . . our yard is currently 2 inches thick with mud! They ran and slipped and ran and slipped and ran and slipped. There are nice long muddy marks from where they slid and I'm guessing they tore up quite a bit of grass on that first outing. All due to the layer of ice that has been on the ground for the past few days that melted yesterday while it rained all day. We had some major thunderstorms this morning and the ground is still soaked. They are going to have to wait for it to dry out or freeze before they can go out again. They just need to get those first few trips out of their system where they are just going to run until they collapse.
Meanwhile, the bathroom is coming along great. It took a while to get past the whole drywall thing, sanding and mudding took a few days. But, we now have a floor that will be grouted today and they started tiling around the shower and bath. We also fixed some water pressure issues we were having and showering is actually an enjoyable experience again. Except for the fact that I sent my sweetie out alone to buy a new shower head and he came back with this 8" long, 6" wide monstrosity that takes up half the shower, but it works!

OK, onto the knitting. My latest super secret project (I forget what # I'm on) is halfway done. I haven't gotten around to winding the yarn for the other half so it may stay like that for a while.

I got some yarn in the mail that my mom and sister bought me and started making a hooded jacket from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss.
I've got the bottom of all the pieces knit and have to start on the yoke but don't have the right size needles. Not having a LYS is really a bummer! I ordered some harmony tips from Knit Picks though and I'm hoping it won't take too long, although they seem to be the slowest mail order place I've ordered from! It is definitely a little more girly than boyish, but with a few more buttons or something it might be a little more manly. I'll wait until we know the gender before I add any extra buttons though.

Well that's it for me. I think I'll go work on my poor, neglected jaywalkers. I know they'll look great, but the pattern is so friggin' boring!! I just want to fall asleep every time I pick it up. I definitely need more exciting sock patterns if I'm ever going to knit through my sock yarn stash.